Dodge Durango 4WD Limited

The reeducation of the Durango results in a truck that is less crude in its truckiness.

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Oh, sure, you'll want to brake and turn--this is now expected of SUVs--and the Durango does both reasonably well. It now sports the four-wheel disc brakes and standard four-wheel ABS that most of its competitors have. And the brakes are quite large--13.2-inch rotors up front and 13.9 rear. Our hefty 5464-pound, Hemi V-8- powered, pimped-out Limited model stopped from 70 mph in 205 feet with light brake fade over four emergency stops. That's eight fewer feet than the last Durango we tested, the lighter R/T model, which wore wide performance tires. So it's an improvement, especially since the disc and drum brakes of the 2000 R/T we tested faded heavily over the same number of stops. But 205 feet is between five and 10 feet longer than the stopping performance of most of its mid- and full-size competitors.

There's just no way around the fact that the Durango is a large haunch of hog. It's 538 pounds heavier than that R/T. But at about 100 pounds lighter than a Tahoe and more than 300 pounds lighter than the Expedition, the Durango is within the expected body-mass index for a jumbo ute. The prodigious weight gain and the soft suspension explain why the new Durango is no faster around the skidpad than the old base model. At 0.67 g, it has about the same stick as a Tahoe (0.68), a little less than the Expedition (0.70), but quite a lot less than new-wave utes such as the Honda Pilot (0.74) and Mitsubishi Endeavor (0.79).

The Durango is honest about its capabilities, though. Enter a corner a little quickly, and it will let you know with a fair amount of body roll that it never encouraged that sort of juvenile behavior. It will not, however, surprise you with any heaving motion, twitchiness, or dynamic histrionics of any sort. Also, you can't tow 8950 pounds with that bitty Pilot like you can with the two-wheel-drive Hemi-powered Durango. Our all-wheel-drive tester could manage a still-impressive 8700 pounds. In fact, the Durango pulls with the best of them, bettering the Chevy Tahoe and matching the Ford Expedition.

This is due mostly to the 5.7-liter Hemi pushrod V-8, which pumps out more horsepower and torque than any of its main competitors. That's 335 horsepower at 5400 rpm and 370 pound-feet of torque at 4200 rpm, to be exact. Even as an $895 option on Limited models (and $1485 on the lower-priced SLTs), we wholeheartedly recommend this motor. Pushing its power through the quasi-six-speed automatic transmission (it has two different ratios for second gear, depending on whether you're calling for an upshift or downshift), our Durango sprinted to 60 mph in 7.5 seconds and covered the quarter-mile in 15.8 seconds at 86 mph. That's quicker than all its major competitors. Hell, the Porsche Cayenne S is only 0.2 second quicker to 60 mph. You could get the smooth 230-hp, 4.7-liter V-8 or the base 210-hp, 3.7-liter V-6. But you know you should get the Hemi, right?

At a grand total of $40,705, this size and refinement don't come cheap. But our Limited model was loaded with a rear-seat video system ($1150), a sunroof ($800), the towing package ($455), and other options. With three engines, three drivetrain configurations, and three trim levels, base prices range between $26,565 and $34,900. That's competitive in the modern world of SUVs, no matter which competitive set you define, large or mid-size. Turns out, prices haven't changed much since 1998--when a base Durango was $26,335--but mechanical sophistication and drivability sure have.